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The Curtain Rises (Alabaster)
The story begins with a male housekeeper being approached by a grotesque man along the shore, who is forced to play hostage in Susan Ross's summer home, awaiting for her return. The monstrous man in question is James Block, a former Olympian medalist who had dated Susan in the past. To past the time, James tells his story, while enjoying some wine from his alabaster goblet. James explains how he met Susan and was instantly smitten by her. To his surprise, Susan began dating him and a year later, James proposed to her. However, Susan rejected his proposal, explaining how she was dating him due to his popularity and how she would never consider marrying him due to his ethnicity. Feeling hurt and betrayed, James attacks Susan, though she is quickly "rescued" by passing bystanders, allowing her to escape. James soon breaks free and gives chase, stealing a car in the process. This leads to James accidentally running over a man, quickly bringing him back to reality from his blind rage. After being arrested, James is tried for his crimes. Susan gives a false testimony, stating that she was threatened into dating James. James is sentenced to 5 years in jail for assault, driving without a license and vehicular manslaughter. Left to brood over Susan's betrayal, James begins to be filled with hatred for Susan and others like her, and even comes to be disgusted by his own flesh, hoping to one day to get his revenge on Susan then ending his own life. Overhearing his self-hatred, a strange old prisoner offers James a way to get rid of his skin to the extent that he would be completely invisible, explaining he had spent 40 years of research and experimenting the ability of invisibility. James finds it hard to believe till the old man shows him his hand, appearing to have his pinky finger severed off. After inspecting his hand, James feels that the old man's finger is indeed there, but invisible. Believing he would likely die before being freed from prison, the old man offers James his invisibility device, but warns him that the device hasn't been tested on a whole human body and that he may die testing it. James claims he's willing to take the chance and doesn't mind if it did end up killing him. After James finished his sentence, he followed the old man's instructions and finds the device. He first tests it on a plant and sees that it does in fact work, then proceeds to test it on his hand, then his entire body. Unable to endure the pain, James moves out of the way of the device, only his skin and hand were fully invisible. He explains that he was lucky, he later discovered that when something with living tissue is turned completely invisible, it dies. James's story ends and begins to admire his wine glass, comparing himself to its alabaster material. He reveals the invisibility device to the housekeeper, Gonzales, and explains how he's heard Susan had lost her fame while he was incarcerated and wishes to get his revenge by giving her the same appearance that he has, so that she will the same pain that he's had to endure physically and mentally. Susan finally returns home and finds the two in her home. After offering to make tea for James, Susan secretly instructs Gonzales to sneak out and get the police while she keeps James distracted. When Susan returns with his tea, James tells her how he realized how he fell in with her beauty all those years ago, while she rejected him for his skin color and has questioned what true beauty is, going on to say how people always say beauty is on the inside, but people still continue discriminate against each other. Noticing that Susan can't seems restless, James toys with her and forces her to kiss him to "convince" him that she doesn't find him disgusting. James soon realizes that the police are coming, noting Gonzales hasn't returned to the living room. Seeing he's been fooled again by Susan, she shows her no mercy and shoots the device's beam on her face, which kills her once her head was completely invisible. To hide her, James quickly disrobes her and shoots the beam on the rest of her body. The police soon arrive, surrounding the house. James quickly arms himself with a handful of peanuts, which he uses to flick at the policeman at bullet-like speeds. James manages to escape with Susan's body, assumed to have used a boat as part of his getaway. James is then shown laying Susan's body on some rocks where the ocean's tide hits, explaining it will be her resting place and that having an invisible corpse would be troublesome.Category:Alabaster